This invention is in the field of mailboxes and more specifically those mail depositories having a pair of opposite doors with an automatic signalling device for indicating presence of mail. In my co-pending U.S. Patent application, Ser. No. 168,126, filed July 14, 1980, I disclose a double door security mailbox having oppositely opening front and rear doors. The mailbox includes a mechanism allowing the front door to be freely opened and closed once by the mail carrier before securing in a locked position. Thereafter, the front door may be unlocked only by opening the rear door. In order to provide yet a more convenient and automatic mailbox as compared to my aforementioned mailbox, I have designed and disclosed herein an automatic signalling device mounted atop the mailbox which will automatically signal whether mail is present within the box. The signalling device is automatically positioned depending upon the opening and closing of the front and rear door to the mailbox.
A number of mailboxes have been designed having a variety of signalling devices mounted thereon. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,290,549, issued to Getz, Jr., there is disclosed a single door mailbox with a manually resettable pair of signal flags. U.S. Pat. No. 4,202,486, issued to Tipsword also discloses a single door mailbox with a signal flag not adapted for use with a security locking mechanism. A further device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,758,027, issued to Morgan having a double door mailbox with a manually operated signal flag. Another double door mailbox is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,005,816 to Malik which provides a signal flag actuating mechanism; however, the signal flat actuating mechanism with a security mechanism is not disclosed. Two additional signal flag mechanisms are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,891,139 to Redling and 4,220,278 to Hasselbring, neither disclosing a signal flag actuating mechanism in conjunction with a security locking mechanism.
My signal flag actuating mechanism as compared to the aforementioned devices is completely automatic and is integrally connected to and operates with the security locking mechanism preventing unauthorized opening of the front door of the mailbox once the mail is deposited therein. The owner, simply by removing the mail through the rear door of the mailbox, automatically positions the signal flag to indicate the box is empty whenever the rear door is opened. As a result, the mailbox disclosed herein is particularly advantageous as compared to the prior art.